His rapid improvement pleased him, but his happiness quickly dissappeared once he checked the exit.
That damned Heracles Ape seemed determined to eat him and refused to leave.
Ling Xiao hesitated, but in the end, he gave up on breaking out.
A peak rank eight demonic beast was comparable to a Rank Nine Martial Vein expert. With his current power, he was helpless.
If he escaped, his only path was death!
“Ai, do I have to give up on participating in the finals?”
Honestly, he was unwilling. With his current strength, he was confident in getting first place. He didn’t believe that Ling Feifan was stronger than him!
However, reality made him compromise.
Life was most important. If he lost it, nothing else would matter. He helplessly returned to the cold pond and continued to cultivate.
In any case, he had tons of free time, so he could further consolidate his current strength.
He continued cultivating <Snow Lotus Qi Formula> and <Nine Transformation Golden Body Art>.
Although his improvement speed had greatly slowed, it was still far faster than the average. Honestly speaking, if the finals hadn’t been in one day, he would have truly desired to stay a while longer.
The last day, Ling Xiao checked the situation once every two hours.
Although he knew that it was unlikely for the Heracles Ape to leave now, he maintained a glimmer of hope.
In the blink of an eye, the last day passed. The finals arrived. However, the Heracles Ape still guarded the exit without any intention of leaving.
Facing this situation, Ling Xiao was helpless.
After consolidating his cultivation for a day, although his two peak martial arts hadn’t made any further breakthroughs, they had significantly improved.
In addition, the number of golden cells within his body had increased from five to six.
This speed was obviously much slower than before.
However, even though it was only a single additional cell, it had increased his strength by 100 pounds, which would definitely be a great help in battle.
Moreover, after the Cold Pond Gold Liquid had continuously tempered his body, his bones had unexpectedly turned golden. Although his blood remained red, it was obviously more vigorous than before.
In the past, he had been bullied, leaving him with internal injuries. Although these had mostly recovered with pills and increasing his cultivation as well as some fortuitous events, this liquid had almost erased any trace of his past injuries. Now, he had strength.
All he needed was a chance to prove himself.
He didn’t want to endlessly wait, so he moved the remaining Cold Pond Gold Liquid into the village within the Landscape World and transplanted all the golden snow lotuses.
At this moment, his village had five farmers. Each one performed his duties while helping each other and perfectly finishing every matter assigned to them.
After this, he explored this structure, hoping to find another exit.
Heavenly Peak City, the Ling Clan’s residence.
The venue for the finals had already been set up, and a large number of disciples had gathered. Today, the entire clan was given leave, so everyone could put down their tasks and watch the competition.
After all, this kind of competition was very helpful for many disciples.
As the start of the finals drifted closer and closer, the disciples of the Genius Hall arrived in succession.
Genius Hall’s rank two, Ling Yun; Genius Hall’s rank three, Ling Shuang; Genius Hall’s rank four, Ling Zhan…
There were also the Elite Hall’s Ling Yihang, Ling Yixue, and the others who had reached the finals.
However, 15 minutes before the start, two people still hadn’t come.
One was the Genius Hall’s rank one, Ling Feifan.
The other one was the unqualified disciple, Ling Xiao.
This situation confused many people.
However, most people focused on Ling Feifan.
As for Ling Xiao, only a few people worried for him.
“The competition is about to start! Why hasn’t he come yet? Did he forget about the competition?”
Among everyone present, Ling Yixue might have been the most concerned for Ling Xiao.
Although they had not interacted much, some friends didn’t need much contact to treasure each other.
After the elimination rounds, Ling Yixue had received a huge blow, so she had cultivated even harder.
Now, she had also successfully stepped into Rank Four Martial Vein.
However, the final competition was full of experts. Her requirements were not high; it would be enough as long as she entered the Genius Hall.
The 110 participating disciples sat according to their ranking. The first row was the top ten of the Genius Hall.
Among these people, other than Ling Feifan who had not yet appeared, even the worst was Peak Rank Four Martial Vein.
As for the top four, they had all reached Rank Five Martial Vein.
The most terrifying one was Ling Yihang. This fellow had lost in the elimination rounds, but he was not one to easily give up.
No one knew what kind of insane training he had undergone or fortuitous encounter he had found, but in an extremely short seven days, he had actually reached Peak Rank Four Martial Vein from initial stage Rank Four Martial Vein.
Although his cultivation base was not as good as the top four of the Genius Hall, it was not worse than the rest.
Moreover, his eyes had a strange luster. Even when examining Ling Yun and the others, he unexpectedly maintained his self-confidence.
“The final competition is about to start! Why haven’t Ling Feifan, the number one of the Genius Hall, and Ling Xiao, the number one of the elimination rounds, arrived yet?”
“Yes, there are less than 15 minutes left. If they miss the start, they’ll be eliminated.”
“It’s a pity. I wanted to see how far that dark horse would go.”
The unqualified disciples regarded Ling Xiao as their hero, so they paid special attention to him.
Honestly, they were a bit anxious that Ling Xiao unexpectedly hadn’t appeared.
Not only them, but even the judges who had watched him earn first in the elimination rounds worried about him not showing up.
“That child has such great talent. If he participates in the finals, he has a chance to reach the top ten. What happened to him?”
The former chief judge muttered to himself.
In today’s finals, he was still a judge, but the chief judge was Ling Xiaotian, the patriarch of the Ling Clan.
“Heh, heh, it seems like those three Black Scarf Thieves succeeded. It was worth spending money to kill that vile spawn!”
Ruthlessness flashed in Ling Shisan’s eyes as he leisurely sprawled in his honored guest seat.
Since Ling Xiao hadn’t appeared, he believed that his assassination task must have succeeded.
Nevertheless, since the Black Scarf Thieves hadn’t asked for the remaining rewards, it made him a little uneasy.
Could they have perished together?
That would be for the best. Like that, he would save a lot of money.
……
The Crouching Dragon Mountain Range: inside the dragon-shaped ancient structure.
Ling Xiao seized his final chance to escape.
At this moment, he estimated that the finals would start in less than 15 minutes, but due to that hateful ape, he was trapped here.
Even like that, he was unwilling to give up until the final moment. Even if he had only a one in a million chance, he would try.
His nature was to be firm.
He would not stop until he reached the Yellow River.
His current achievements were inseparable from his indomitable spirit.
Only useless people would give up upon encountering a setback.
