Immortality: Starting with a grave, I'm invincible when burying corpses.

???

Me? Fight this old man??

What happened? Where am I? Am I still half asleep?

Yes, he must not be fully awake yet!

Under Qingxi's expectant gaze, Mu Ling'er gave herself a triple tap.

From surprise to bewilderment to anger, the whole process took less than ten seconds.

An angry Mu Ling'er genuinely felt that Qing Xi was somewhat ill.

When the two first met, Qingxi already had some mental issues, and after many years apart, these issues have only gotten worse.

Look at Mu Ling'er, so refined and gentle, does she look like she could fight at all?

Suppressing the urge to smash Qingxi's head flat, Mu Ling'er forced a smile and turned to Mu An for help.

It's not a big problem; she still has her reliable Da'an.

"The wind's strong, get out of here! Da'an! Help!"

Expectations were dashed the next second; the ever-reliable Da'an calling method failed at this moment.

Mu An seemed not to see Mu Ling'er's pleading eyes. He took a step back and even pretended to wave his fist at her, as if to cheer her on.

[・ヘ・?]

The smile on his face vanished abruptly.

Mu Ling'er looked at Mu An expressionlessly, then at Qing Xi who was still complacent, and suddenly felt terrible.

What are you two laughing at?

So you two planned this all along to laugh at me, didn't you?

There's no love left!

Just as Mu Ling'er was thinking about how to bite Mu An's arm a couple of times, the voice of the old sect leader of Qingyun Sect came from the arena.

"Young friend, I observe that your divine light is restrained, your Great Dao arises spontaneously, and you are constantly in harmony with heaven and earth. You are undoubtedly one of the best among the Celestial Martial Saints. Would you be interested in challenging me to a duel on that white jade arena?"

The moment the old master of Qingyun Sect looked at Mu Ling'er, his gaze was fixed on Mu An.

Xiao Lingyun had noticed something was amiss earlier. There were three old eunuchs in the audience today, each of whom was a Celestial Martial Saint, and they kept glancing in this direction.

There's absolutely no reason to have three old eunuchs in purple robes present at the same time to monitor and protect a prince.

Even more outrageous, there was someone in the audience who deliberately blurred their face, so that only a Celestial Martial Saint could remain unaffected by this distorted perception.

Martial artists below the level of Celestial Martial Saint would unconsciously ignore this person.

It's so eye-catching that it's hard not to notice it.

At first glance, Xiao Lingyun felt that the person in the audience looked familiar, as if he had seen his portrait somewhere before.

After a moment's recollection, Xiao Lingyun suddenly remembered the paintings of several prominent figures of the human race in the sect.

"That face... could it be the Five Elements True Lord, known as the Demonic God of Slaughter? How could such a powerful figure be here?"

In principle, Xiao Lingyun only wanted to pretend to be deaf and dumb, to act as if she hadn't seen or heard anything.

No matter what a great figure like the Five Elements True Lord wanted to do, it was not something his old, frail body was qualified to participate in.

Unfortunately, the principles themselves seem to want this old man to get into a fight with that young girl.

This is really frustrating!

Winning is not an option, losing is not an option either; if Liangliang gets injured, not fighting is not an option either.

Difficult!

Qingxi, that little girl, is really taking advantage of this old man to the point of ruin.

For a moment, the two people who were forced to fight felt terrible and were somewhat at a loss.

Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Mu Ling'er ultimately couldn't bring herself to turn around and leave.

With Qingxi praising her so highly, she felt embarrassed to admit that she was actually a weakling.

She glanced at the Yin-Yang Jade Pendant at her waist, touched the Five Elements Crystal Ring on her wrist with her left hand, and touched the Flowing Cloud hanging at her waist with her right hand. She also lightly stomped her empty feet twice, wearing comfortable Cloud-Stepping Boots.

After moving around a bit, Mu Ling'er's bewildered heart calmed down considerably.

If you lack strength, you can make up for it with magic weapons. At worst, you can just hide like a turtle and figure out that the old man has no ability to break through your defenses.

It's a pity that I didn't wear the Danxia robe; otherwise, I would have been even more secure!

As for Liu Yun, Mu Ling'er said that as long as the old man didn't go too far, she wouldn't resort to such shameless behavior.

Cheating is something you should only do to ensure you don't lose; anything more than that is inappropriate.

Mu Ling'er was quite experienced in this regard. She had cheated on many tests since she was a child. As long as she didn't let others take the blame for her, Mu An wouldn't blame her.

Just like the major exams in the academies of Qing'an Prefecture, it's not a big deal for students to cheat if they want to pass, but if they use cheating to compete for those key training spots, it cannot be easily forgiven.

More and more people gathered to watch the spectacle; what started as a small audience of only seventy or eighty people had now grown to three hundred.

When the two arrived at the white jade arena below the mountaintop, the number of people who had followed them had increased to nearly a thousand.

Many spectators were already there; they had recently watched the sword duel between Dugu Wuji, the disciple of the Sword Saint, and Li Qinglian, the head of the Qinglian Sword Sect.

Unfortunately, the Sword Saint's disciple was ultimately more skilled and defeated the Azure Lotus Sword Sect leader by a single move.

In today's duel, they suffered another defeat for Daqi.

Three hundred and seventy-six duels, all of which ended in defeat, filled countless martial arts practitioners with righteous indignation, and they hoped day and night that a master would step in and put down the arrogance of these outsiders!

For some reason, the prodigies of Sixiang Mountain and Lingshan Temple have never stepped onto the stage to compete, which has allowed Dugu Wuji to remain arrogant to this day!

Thousands of spectators were spread out on the platform carved out below the mountaintop, including celestial martial arts masters, renowned figures in the martial arts world, and many scions of noble families who came to join in the fun.

Even Dugu Wuji and Li Qinglian, who had just finished their sword duel, came to the audience seats and watched the two who were about to compete in martial arts with leisure.

With their discerning eye, they could naturally see the extraordinary nature of these two, who must have gone extremely far among the Celestial Martial Saints.

Watching the contest between these two was also quite valuable for them.

Below the arena, seeing so many people here, Mu Ling'er glared and looked fiercely in the direction where Mu An was.

The original trio is now reduced to just the Prince of Xiang and his wife; Mu An has disappeared.

"Strange, where did the people from Da'an go? How come only Qingxi and Prince Xiang are left?"

Seeing that Mu An had disappeared, Mu Ling'er suddenly had many thoughts in her mind. Everything that had happened today seemed strange.

She shook her head, lightly touched the ground with her toes, and floated to the center of the arena like a willow catkin.

The old leader of Qingyun Sect had already arrived at the center of the arena before her.

Upon seeing Mu Ling'er step onto the stage, the old sect leader immediately bowed.

"Greetings, young lady. That little girl Qingxi is quite unruly. If she has been impolite in any way, please forgive her."

Although she secretly wished she could beat Qingxi up right now, on the stage, in front of everyone, Mu Ling'er still acted quite "magnanimously," only whispering through gritted teeth.

"You flatter me, senior..."

Qingxi is my "close friend," it was just a little "joke" between friends, nothing to be taken seriously, so there's no question of blaming or not blaming.

If anyone is to blame, it's an elder who wanted to see me make a fool of myself.

They promised to bring me to see the excitement, but now they've left me here alone, making me the focus of everyone else's excitement. It's infuriating!

The unpleasant words made Xiao Lingyun stiffen. After thinking for a while, she still didn't know how to respond, so she could only laugh awkwardly a few times.

Mu Ling'er dared to say it, but this old man dared not accept it.

Who in the world doesn't know that the Five Elements True Lord is petty? What would happen if he heard this?

And this young girl is quite straightforward; she says whatever comes to mind right then and there without holding back at all.

That temper of his is something else; he's not someone to mess with.

I have to be careful when I make my move, otherwise I'll embarrass the girl and she'll hold a grudge, which would be a big problem.

As for the possibility of not being able to defeat her, Xiao Lingyun had considered it at first. After all, her opponent was the daughter of the Five Elements True Lord, who had consumed countless rare and exotic items, so it was no exaggeration to say that she was very strong.

But after noticing Mu Ling'er's attitude and her standing posture, the experienced old sect leader had a better understanding of the situation.

This little girl's cultivation level is probably all from being fed rare and precious herbs; she has no real combat experience whatsoever. She shouldn't be difficult to deal with, so we should just let her have her way.