Qin Yulong was far from ignorant. The moment he felt the overwhelming heat radiating from the flames pressing against his spirit light barrier, he recognized it instantly—this was unorthodox fire. A closer look sent a fresh wave of horror crashing over him.
"It's... Magma Fire!! A high-grade one!!"
Suddenly, a realization struck him. He jerked his head toward Lin Feng, his voice trembling with disbelief.
"It's you!! You're Lin Feng... the one from Zhenhai City!!"
Opposite him, Lin Feng's brows lifted slightly. So my reputation spreads farther than I thought. Yet recognition didn't stay his hand. Slowly, deliberately, he raised his right hand, fingers splayed, poised to command the Magma Fire to shred its trapped prey.
Seeing the motion, Qin Yulong's soul nearly fled his body. Desperation fueled his screams as he poured every ounce of energy into maintaining his flickering barrier.
"You can't kill me!! I'm the Young Master of Black Loong City!! You CAN'T kill me!!"
The weight of death—a sensation he'd inflicted countless times—now crushed him. His mind reeled, his voice cracking near hysteria. Survival hinged on one thing: his lineage. His sole lifeline was the title 'Young Master of Black Loong City'.
To his overwhelming shock, Lin Feng actually paused. The raised hand hesitated. Doubt seemed to flicker across his face.
Hope surged through Qin Yulong like a drug. He pressed on frantically, "My father—he's here to oversee the tournament! He's on the island right now! He could be watching us this very moment through the monitoring arrays! Killing me would bring you endless trouble!!"
Fearing he'd pushed too far, he quickly softened his tone, shifting to pleading.
"Just let me live! I swear on my soul—I'll never seek revenge for today! And... and I'll give you all my tournament tokens! All seven of them! The other two each had three! That's thirteen tokens! With them, winning first place would be effortless for you!"
"Oh?" A spark of interest lit Lin Feng's eyes. Thirteen tokens? Added to his own twelve, that totaled twenty-five. Victory was virtually assured; no other participant could possibly gather such a number.
Lin Feng remained silent for two tense heartbeats. Slowly, he lowered his hand. His voice was ice.
"Hand over the tokens. Then you may leave."
"Truly?! Yes... yes!!" Qin Yulong nearly wept with relief. Bargaining was impossible. Hastily, he retrieved seven jade tokens from his spirit storage ring and flung them toward Lin Feng.
As the tokens flew, a tendril of the Magma Fire coiled around them like a living serpent, carrying them swiftly and safely back to Lin Feng's grasp.
Lin Feng inspected them briefly before storing them away. With a flicker of will, the inferno engulfing Qin Yulong shrank violently, collapsing back into its original fist-sized orb of crimson fury, which zipped back to orbit Lin Feng's shoulder.
Qin Yulong gaped, stunned by Lin Feng's unexpected adherence to his word. He threw Lin Feng one last wary, almost confused glance before backing away cautiously step by step. Only when he was certain no attack would come did he spin around and vanish into the dense jungle. Within moments, even his aura faded from Lin Feng's spiritual perception.
Lin Feng stood motionless for a while longer, ensuring Qin Yulong was truly gone. Then, almost imperceptibly, he tilted his head, casting an utterly impassive look toward a large tree nearby before turning and striding away...
…
Meanwhile, atop the central mountain peak of Wu Pine Island.
Every eye in the command pavilion was locked onto a single image among the dozens of glowing monitoring array screens. It showed only the retreating back of Lin Feng.
A profound silence hung over the gathering of over a dozen Nascent Soul cultivators representing the five cities. Shock radiated from most faces, the scene they'd just witnessed almost beyond belief.
As Lin Feng finally disappeared from the screen, murmurs broke the hush. Many gazes shifted subtly toward a man standing slightly apart on the right. He wore imposing black robes edged in gold, his face drawn and narrow. Qin Huangtian, Lord of Black Loong City and father to Qin Yulong, radiated palpable fury. Powerful essence energy churned within him, threatening to erupt. Relief that his son lived warred with cold rage at the humiliation—Lin Feng had stripped Qin Yulong of everything.
"He did sense the monitoring array!"
"Clearly. Otherwise, he wouldn't have spared Qin Yulong… An astounding young man. Who is he? Why does he seem unfamiliar?"
"From the Zhenhai Alliance, isn't he? Fellow Cultivator Yu, when did your alliance nurture such a… monstrous junior?"
Whispers rippled through the assembled elite. Curiosity, astonishment, and thinly veiled amusement colored their tones as they glanced between the composed Yu Ping and the seething Qin Huangtian.
Qin Yulong had blindly guessed correctly in his terror. A monitoring array had overlooked the confrontation. Every move, every word, had been witnessed by the judges. This was the true reason Lin Feng stayed his hand.
He hadn't sensed the array during the chase or the killing of the gold-robed cultivator. Only when poised to finish Qin Yulong did its subtle energy imprint register. Eliminating the son of a city lord under direct observation was too great a risk. Qin Yulong himself was ultimately insignificant. The tokens were the true prize.
…
Elsewhere on the island, Lin Feng swiftly dealt with the fallen cultivators' remains before leaving the area. As he walked, he sorted through the contents of their spirit storage rings.
His first search was for tokens. To his surprise and satisfaction, he found four in the gold-robed cultivator's ring and three in the yellow-robed one's—one more than Qin Yulong had claimed.
Seems the gold-robed one skimmed one. The reason didn't matter. What mattered was the result: twenty-six tokens. First place was now irrevocably his.
Apart from Dong Tianyang, he'd only encountered three groups since landing. Each had delivered a substantial bounty of tokens, sparing him the tedium of countless small confrontations. Of course, this 'efficiency' was possible only because of his overwhelming strength. Anyone weaker would have been stripped bare long ago.
It wasn't even the fourth day of the tournament. The winner had been decided ahead of schedule—an unprecedented event in the history of the Five Cities Tournament.
With victory secured, there was no need to hunt others. Lin Feng adjusted his course, heading directly toward the central mountain where the tournament concluded…
…
At the same moment, a thousand miles from Wu Pine Island, above the dark ocean expanse.
A streak of violet light, brilliant as a comet, tore through the night sky. Within its glow rode a giant avian beast. Two figures sat astride its back...
Ahead, a massive, shadowy landmass resolved through the gloom. Its central peak stood dominant—a silhouette strangely reminiscent of a Loong's head thrown back in a silent roar against the heavens.
Demon Loong Island.